The Director is responsible for formally planning, coordinating, and implementing the foundations and individual giving programs to meet the Organization’s fundraising goals and significantly build our donor base. We are looking for an entrepreneurial and results-driven individual, responsible for state-wide donor cultivation and solicitation and for engaging and deepening relationships with donors.

The director will report to and work closely with the VP of Development to execute the plan and new strategies. You will also be in charge of the external systems and will build a best-in-class development structure that will support myAgro’s fast growing fundraising program with foundations, individuals, and corporations. This is an exciting time of growth at myAgro, and this role is ideal for an entrepreneurial leader who seeks opportunities to leverage his or her professional talents to contribute meaningfully toward accomplishing myAgro’s ambitious goals.

Responsibilities

Strategy and Revenue Generation:

-Manage your own portfolio of new major donors and be responsible for an individual target ($) for new donors (foundations, individual, and corporations) in year 1.
-Work with the VP Development to develop and define foundation strategies to increase giving, both in the number of supporters/funders and in all levels of giving.
-Establish benchmarks for progress and success in partnership with the VP Development; monitor results against revenue goals; report on the progress of the major gifts and corporate programs throughout the year.
-Develop cultivation strategies for prospects, and engage staff, Board, or other Foundation supporters in making solicitations, when appropriate.
-Contribute to the development of foundation and corporate engagement strategies; take initiative to develop compelling, mission-focused, and brand-amplifying opportunities by packaging various assets across the organization; and work collaboratively with the Organization\’s leadership and with agency partners to deliver professional-grade marketing collaterals and content, convening key stakeholders as needed to foster clarity, consensus, and alignment.

Prospecting and Cultivation:

-Manage the donor engagement cycle for all key prospects throughout the cultivation, solicitation, recognition, and stewardship phases.
-Identify, research, and qualify prospective foundations, individuals, and corporate partners; develop portfolios of prospects for cultivation and solicitation.
-In close collaboration with the VP Development, manage existing relationships with the Organization’s top donors, nurturing and stewarding these relationships and endeavoring to deepen and expand their engagement with the Organization over time.
-Drive prospect identification efforts to scale-up and further diversify the base of foundation partners. Oversee identification, segmentation, research and vetting processes, guiding the team in undertaking these functions to foster a robust corporate engagement enterprise.
-Manage effective systems for tracking and maintaining appropriate information about donors and prospective donors through the Salesforce CRM database.
-Ensure an active, dynamic prospect process by moving leads across the pipeline from cold stage to solicitation.
-Establish annual work plans, revenue targets and key performance indicators; analyze performance metrics and monitors progress toward goals, fine-tuning strategies and implementation timelines as necessary.
-Evaluate the effectiveness of strategies and use these insights to inform continuous improvement. Promote data-driven decision making.

Communications:

-Persuasively articulate the mission, goals and program priorities of myAgro in written and oral presentations.
-Develop presentation materials, including research, slides, scripts, talking points and proposal collateral for prospect meetings.
-Manage the development and production of proposals, newsletters, brochures, and other development outreach materials to individual constituents, as necessary.
-Maintain consistent quality communications with donors in coordination with the CEO, VP Development, other staff, and the Board.
-Represent myAgro at external events and networking opportunities, e.g., industry conferences, workshops and funder convenings.
-Ensure timely follow up on all gifts to provide thanks and documentation to donors.

Required Experience

-A Bachelor’s degree and at least 5+ years of direct experience and proven success in securing funding from either foundations and corporations or individuals.
-Ability to produce excellent quality materials needing minimal editing.
-Knowledge of international development and/or international agriculture and rural development.
-Strong understanding of the project management cycle to achieve results.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

-Entrepreneurial attitude, proven success in building a portfolio of foundation and/or individual funders.
-Ability to multi-task with high degree of project- and time-management capacity to achieve high performance goals and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment with multiple interruptions.
-Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, including compelling writing abilities.
-Strong problem solving, research, and analytical skills.
-Ability to thrive and deliver results in an unstructured and dynamic environment.
-Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office, donor databases (i.e. Blackbaud eTapestry), Salesforce, and online fundraising platforms.
-Demonstrated ability in building relationships with partners. The ideal candidate will excel at deal-making: crafting compelling engagement strategies, pitching/presenting, negotiating, and closing.
-Experience with national brand promotion partnerships, consumer facing campaigns, and brand amplification strategies is helpful.
-Demonstrated ability to exercise good judgement and maintain confidentiality at all times.
Support the successful cultivation and solicitation of donors by staff, Board, or other Foundation supporters by providing on-going coordination, assistance, appropriate accountability, and strategic counsel.

Additional Information

About myAgro

myAgro is expanding rapidly, growing from serving tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers across the globe. myAgro is a startup social enterprise with the mission of helping 1 million farmers earn $1.50 more per day by 2025, doubling their income and lifting them out of poverty. Learn more about myAgro at www.myagro.org.